Metallic wire for card clothing



July 1963 MORIICHI WATANABE 3,

METALLIC WIRE FOR CARD CLOTHING 2 Sheets-Shet 1 Filed March 14, 1966Fig. /-5

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INVENTOR MORucHl wATANABE BY I AT ORNEYS MORIICHI WATANABE 3,391,429METALLIC WIRE FO R CARD CLOTHING July 9, 1968 Filed March 14. 1966 2'Sheets-Sheet :3

INVENTOR MORIICHI WATANABE BY W a ATTORNEYS United States Patent3,391,429 METALLIC WIRE FOR CARD CLOTHING Moriichi Watanabe,Shinkawa-cho, Aichi-ken, Japan, as-

signor to Nagoya Metallic Card Clothing C0,, Ltd., Nagoya, Japan, acorporation of Japan Filed Mar. 14, 1966, Ser. No. 533,908 1 Claim. (Cl.19114) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Metallic wire for card clothingconsisting of a base portion and an upper working portion having teethon the top thereof, integral with said base portion; knurls of 0.050.7mm. in height being present at density 4-200 per square millimeter on aside of said working portion; and said wire having the followingcharacteristics: teeth height of 0.1-2.6 mm., teeth pitch of l050 perinch, working height of 0.3-3.0 mm, base thickness of 0.6-2.0 mm., andtip thickness of 0.15-0.35 mm.

This invention relates to metallic wire of novel structure for cardclothing, which performs excellent carding action. More particularly,the invention relates to metallic wire for card clothing with which thecarding of fibers is performed at the side portion thereof.

It is heretofore known to apply saw tooth wire, that is, the metallicwire consisting of the working portion having saw tooth on the top andthe base portion, onto the cylinder or dofier of a carding machine. Inrecent years considerable improvements have been achieved on theproperties as well as the shape of the tooth of such metallic Wire whichis finding wide use in the field of spinning.

Whereas, with all of the heretofore known types of such metallic wirethe transporting and carding of the fibers is performed by the saw toothonly, and for the sure performance of the given function it has beengenerally believed that the tooth must have an acute working angleagainst the direction of movement of the wire, and also that the notch(trough) between any two teeth must be considerably deep. And, althoughsuch metallic wire has its advantage that it normally dispenses withstripping and grinding, the same also has its drawback that the fibersare damaged more or less by the carding action of the tooth having anacute working angle. Furthermore, with the known types of the metallicwire, it is essential that the working angle of the tooth, the number ofteeth per unit area and the height of the tooth, etc. to be varied inaccordance with the type of the fiber to be carded, and denier as wellas length of the staple, for the optimum carding. Consequently, there isthe inconvenience that from a carding machine mounted with any knowntype of the metallic wire, only single type of sliver is obtainable.

We now found, however, quite differently from the conventional technicalconcept of performing the transporting and carding of fiberssimultaneously at the saw tooth portion of the metallic ,wire, that itis practicable to let the side portion of the metallic wire perform thecarding of fibers instead of using the bite at the top portion thereof,and that when the transporting and the carding of the fibers are soperformed at the different parts of the metallic wire, excellent cardingeffect is attained ice without any appreciable damage on the fibers. Itis furthermore found that with our novel concept the metallic wire isusable generally forthe carding process of fibers, receiving norestriction from type and staple length of the fibers to be used.

Accordingly, the obect of this invention is to provide a novel typemetallic wire for card clothing which has a structure entirely differentfrom that of the known metallic wire for card clothing and exhibitsexcellent carding performance with respect to the fiber orientation asWell as the number of neps in the sliver obtained, physical propertiesof the final product yarn and the fiber yield.

Another object of the invention is to provide metallic wire for cardclothing of novel structure, with which the carding of fibers isperformed at the side or sides thereof.

Still another object of the invention is to provide metallic wire forcard clothing which is so designed that the transporting of fibers isperformed mainly by means of the teeth cut on the top portion of themetallic wire, and the carding of the fibers is performed mainly at theside or sides of the metallic wire.

A further object of the invention is to provide metallic wire for cardclothing which can be used for carding process of fibers in general,being subject to no restriction with respect to the type and staplelength of the fibers to be used or the counts of the object yarn.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent fromreading the following specification.

According to the invention, the foregoing objects are achieved by themetallic wire for card clothing, which consists of the working portionprovided with teeth on the top and the base portion, and which ischaracterized in that at least one side of the said Working portion isprovided with knurls of 005-07 mm. in height, at a density of 4-200 per1 mmf For a still better understanding of the invention, the followingexplanation is made with reference to the attached drawings, in which:

FIGS. 1A and 1B are respectively the side view and cross-sectional viewshowing ,the structure of a conventional metallic wire;

FIGS. 2A and 2B are respectively the side view and cross-sectional viewshowing one embodiment of the metallic wire of this invention;

FIGS. 3A and 3B are respectively the side view and cross-sectional viewof another embodiment of the metallic wire of this invention; and

FIGS. 4A, 4B and 4C are respectively the side view, cross-sectional viewand an enlarged cross-section of a part, of the metallic wire of thisinvention for the explanation of the dimensions of the parts of thewire.

Hereinafter the terms denoting the dimensions and numerical figures ofthe parts are used in the present specification and claims with thesignificance as defined with reference to FIGS. 4A, 4B and 4C asfollows:

H =T0tal height G=Base thickness D=Base height A =Working height B=Medium thickness C=Tip thickness E=Tooth height K=Knurl height L=Knurlpitch P=Tooth pitch a=Working angle For the sake of explanation,structure of a conventional metallic wire is shown by FIGS. 1A and 1B.The same wire consists of the base 1 and the Working portion 2 on whichthe saw teeth 3 having a tooth height E of 0.8 2.6 mm. are notched. Inthe conventional metallic wire, the sides of the working portion 2 aresmooth-surfaced and furthermore because the teeth 3 are notched asdeeply as to the point close to the middle of the working portion 2 andthe base 1, the sides of the working portion 2 have but small areas.Thus no particular consideration has been given on the sides of theworking portion. Again in the carding machine applied with this type ofmetallic wire, the transporting and carding of fibers are performed atthe saw tooth portion having an acute working angle shown as or in FIG.1A, and therefore the shape and dimension of the tooth is determined foreach individual type of the fibers to be used as well as for eachdesired count of the object sliver for the optimum result. Few examplesof such dimensions of the heretofore employed metallic wire are given asfollows:

Thus it should be clear that only single type of sliver is obtainablefrom a carding machine applied with such a conventional metallic wire.

The present invention is entirely independent of the technical conceptunderlying such conventional metallic wire, but is based on the noveldiscovery that when knurls of specific dimensions are densely providedon a side or sides of the metallic wire, very satisfactory cardingaction is performed also at the side portion of the wire. As shown inFIGS. 2A and 2B, the metallic wire of this invention consists of thebase 1 and the working portion 2 which has teeth 3 on the top andplurality of small knurls 4 on at least one, preferably both, sides.

According to the invention, the knurls of 0.05-0.7 mm. in height arecaused to be present at a density of 4-200 per 1 mmF. In order for theexcellent carding action performed at the side or sides of the workingportion of the metallic wire, the knurls should preferably have a heightof 008-02 mm., and be present at a density of 4100/mm.

The said knurls can be imparted by notching the smooth surface of theside or sides of the working portion of the metallic wire, by anyoptional means such as knurling, grinding, chemical or electrochemicaletching, etc. For instance, when knurling is employed for producing theknurls, the knurls can be readily formed by notching knurly grooves intothe smooth side-surface at a frequent intervals, i.e., at intervals ofno more than 0.5 mm., at crossing directions. At such a time, of coursethe knurly grooves must possess a depth of 005-07 mm. The directions ofthe knurly grooves may be optional.

Consequently the shape of the knurls on the side or sides of themetallic wire is not critical, but may be any such as of pyramid, cone,their truncated forms, or of indeterminate grain. The distributionthereof neither is critical, so far as the requirement than 4-200 knurlsshould be present per 1 mm. is met.

The teeth provided on the top of the working portion of the metallicwire of this invention may have an optional shape and dimensions so faras the same serve to the intended purpose, i.e, to transport the fibersin the carding machine. Because with the metallic wire of thisinvention, the carding of the fibers is mainly performed at the side orsides of the working portion on which the knurls are present.Accordingly the shape of the said teeth is not limited to serration, butmay be, for example, the notches imparted by grinding. The preferreddimensions of the teeth on the top of the working portion are normally0.1-2.6 mm. in height, and 10-50/in. in tooth pitch. The working angle(a) may be acute or obtuse. Accordingly, this invention embraces withinits scope such metallic wire of which working portion has theconventional saw tooth 3 and also the knurls 4 notched on its side orsides, as shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B. Of course it should be apparent thatwith this type of metallic wire, the carding of fibers is performed bothat the side or sides of the working portion and the saw tooth 3.

However, in a preferred embodiment of this invention, the dimensions ofthe teeth on the top of the working portion are made small to let themperform the transporting of fibers only. By so doing it becomes possibleto use the metallic wire of this invention for carding process of fibersin general, without any restriction incurred upon by the type and staplelength of the fibers to be employed or by the count of the spun yarndesired.

The working height A in the metallic wire of this invention isconsiderably variable depending on the density and height of the knurlsnotched on the side or sides of the working portion, and furthermore onthe height and pitch of the teeth on the top. Generally speaking,however, the preferred workin height is 0.3-3.0 mm., 0.5-2.0 mm. beingparticularly preferred.

Other dimensions of the metallic wire of this invention, for example,may be as follows, the right hand figures being the preferreddimensions.

Incidentally, the medium thickness should be greater than the tipthickness by at least 0.05 mm.

The quality of the material steel for the metallic Wire of thisinvention is not critical, but the steel may be that which isconventionally used for known metallic wire. Of course it is possible toincrease the hardness of the working portion, particularly the tip, inaccordance with the accepted practice, and such is recommended.

For mounting the metallic wire of this invention onto the cylinder ordoffer of a carding machine, the conventional techniques for metallicwire mounting well known in the art can be adopted Without anyalteration. To wit, the metallic wire under a suitable tension isapplied onto the cylinder or doffer while pressed to the correctposition. After mounting of the Wire is completed, the so mountedsurface of the cylinder or dotfer may be subjected to grinding, ifnecessary.

Thus mounted metallic wire on the cylinder or doffer has preferably500-1200 teeth per square inch.

The performance of the carding machine in which the metallic wire ofthis invention is employed is quite satisfactory compared with that ofthe carding machine using the conventional metallic wire, with respectto the fiber orientation and number of neps in the sliver obtained,physical properties of the final product yarn, and also the yield of thefibers.

In case of increasing the number of revolution per unit time of thecylinder or doffer for the purpose of increased output, with theconventional metallic wire the staple length of the fibers often tendsto be shortened, while such is apparently objectionable. In contrast,when the metallic wire of this invention is used, the increase in r.p.m.of the cylinder causes none of such objectionable phenomenon.

Furthermore, there is such an advantage that the carding machine mountedwith the metallic wire of this invention can be used in general forproducing spun yarns 5 of varied counts from Widely varied types of lapsof varied staple length.

Hereinafter the achievement of the metallic wire of this invention willbe illustrated by the following example.

A metallic wire of the following dimensions:

Total height, mm. 3.3 Base thickness, m.n1. 0.75

Base height, m.m. 1.5 Working height, m.m. 1.5 Medium thickness, m.m.0.3 Tip thickness, m.m. 0.2 Tooth height, m.m. 0.6 Knurl height, m.m 0.1Knurl pitch, per mm. Tooth pitch, per in.

was mounted on the cylinder and doffer of a conventional carding machinefor carding process for the production of a count cotton yarn.

The results of the machine running as to the waste, number of neps andyarn quality are shown in the tables below, in comparison with those ofusing the same type of carding machine mounted With a conventionalmetallic Wire.

with conventional metallic wire Nep per in. sq. after strip- AverageTABLE 3.YARN QUALITY TEST This invention Conventional metallic wireSkein Test (lbs/lea) 49. 8G 49. 89 U percent l5. 7 17.81 Fiberorientatioi 96. 7 96. 7 Naps per 10 g.:

L O 0 2 3 S 4 6 Length of etfcctive (iu.)

fiber 1. 28 1.26

I claim:

1. A metallic wire for card clothing consisting of a working portion anda base portion integral therewith, said working portion having teeth ona top portion thereof, said metallic wire being characterized by thepresence of 'knurls of 0.050.7 mm. in height at a density of 4- 200 persquare millimeter on at least one side of said working portion, saidteeth being 0.1-2.6 mm. in height and present at a pitch of 10-50 perinch, said metallic wire having a height of the working portion of0.3-3.0 m.m., a thickness of the base portion of 0.62.0 rn.m., and athickness of the teeth at the top portion of the working portion of0.15-0.35 m.m.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,731,676 1/1956 Apthorp et al19114 2,937,412 5/ 1960 Hollingsworth 19-1 14 2,973,560 3/ 1961Hollingsworth 191 12 3,204,297 9/ 1965 Wada 191 14 3,231,941 2/1966Flynn 19-114 XR FOREIGN PATENTS 1,047,057 7/ 1953 France.

944,854 12/ 1963 Great Britain.

DORSEY NEWTON, Primary Examiner.

